Knight Fight - OG Myth-Weavers

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Knight Fight

 
Knight Fight

Has anyone watched the season of Knight Fight that History channel produced this year? The season ended just a few weeks ago.

I found it a very cool watch. The show is about professional armored combatants wearing different styles of heavy armor and they fight in a gladitorial style arena with blunted weapons with some rules thrown in for safety. Each episode starts with 6 "Knights" and over the course of an hour they are whittled down to an event champion. Arms and armor from different periods of world history were used and the knights had to fight using weapons chosen by the panel of judges in each "Heat". The season ends with the episode champions fighting each other for the title of Knight Fight Champion.

I thought it was really cool to see what it is actually like to see real human beings battling in heavy armor. These guys get tired fast carrying around all that weight and many of the weapons that we use in DnD style games would be almost useless vs a warrior wearing heavy armor like they wear. A weapon like a rapier would be next to useless. The guys with short sword and buckler type weapons were seriously over matched by the heavier weapon users.

I'll stop there with any spoiler stuff but was wondering if anyone else out there watched it and learned some of the realism involved in armored combat and what it really looks like?

I know and fight with the guy that won the season.

I haven't watched it though, I've been warned off of it by some other members of the community. The warning that I received was that the show does a great job of highlighting some of the more toxic elements of the hobby.

For a lot of us, yeah it is a lot of fun to get on the field and beat the crud out of people, but the focus isn't just on hitting hard and smashing people. Much like asian martial artists can be frustrated that their art which focuses on mindfulness and whole body health is distilled down to only the violent aspects.

Same issue. (But again, haven't watched it.)

Yea pretty much lost interest once I got to 'panel of judges'. I loathe that idiotic reality show trope of a bunch of semi-qualified idiots throwing 'curve balls' at people. Like what is even the point of that? If these guys are trained fighters in some form of combat, what exactly does giving them a random weapon they are not trained in do? Reward the guy who happens to use or have the weapon most similar?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Swifty View Post
I know and fight with the guy that won the season.

I haven't watched it though, I've been warned off of it by some other members of the community. The warning that I received was that the show does a great job of highlighting some of the more toxic elements of the hobby.

For a lot of us, yeah it is a lot of fun to get on the field and beat the crud out of people, but the focus isn't just on hitting hard and smashing people. Much like asian martial artists can be frustrated that their art which focuses on mindfulness and whole body health is distilled down to only the violent aspects.

Same issue. (But again, haven't watched it.)
Toxic elements? Huh, I didn't pick up on that at all. The guys were very competitive and I thought were very complimentary of their opponents, even in defeat. Now the competitive nature of these guys made them think they should have won in instances where the decision was close. I'm sure since I'm not in the Armored Combat League that I didn't pick up on things that a competitor would have. As a casual viewer I thought it was well done. I was focused more on the fighting, armor, technique and weaponry myself.

Knowing nothing about the ACL, I have no idea if there is any sort of "Knights Code", Chivalry, heraldry, or things of that nature. If there is, the show did not at all display any of it, they certainly just concentrate on the fighting. They want to sell a show and they know that the masses want to see action. It's an unfortunate part of the human condition and why only negative news sells, drama shows, death, sex, etc etc.

@Madadh Without a doubt the judges are terrible. For me, every judge or host of every "reality show" are terrible, fake, and unwatchable. I will say that from what I saw in each battle they usually made the right choice as for the winners, I don't remember disagreeing with any of their decisions so their judgements seemed solid.

I haven't seen it but I wouldn't take a panel of judges seriously unless I first saw them demonstrate that they knew what they were talking about.

That'd be fairly easy in a show like this- just have the "judges" be the first ones in the ring.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Swifty View Post
Asian martial artists can be frustrated that their art which focuses on mindfulness and whole body health is distilled down to only the violent aspects.
I am a 4th degree black belt in TaeKwonDo, I have cross trained in several other martial arts. Most of the time when I talk to others about this, they want me to punch them, show some move, do a flipping-backkick over a moving car that's on fire, or something relative to the violent or flashy side.

I have used more of my training to avoid conflict, and resolving tense situations... than I ever will solving issues with violence.

The movies always want to show red belts, doing red belt things... but there's a reason they're red. They haven't cooled down yet.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scream View Post
I am a 4th degree black belt in TaeKwonDo, I have cross trained in several other martial arts. Most of the time when I talk to others about this, they want me to punch them, show some move, do a flipping-backkick over a moving car that's on fire, or something relative to the violent or flashy side.

I have used more of my training to avoid conflict, and resolving tense situations... than I ever will solving issues with violence.

The movies always want to show red belts, doing red belt things... but there's a reason they're red. They haven't cooled down yet.
I'm a (jokingly) firm believer in the introduction of the Pink Belt. As the final rank before first Black Belt, candidates should have to wear a pink belt. If they can't handle that, then they aren't ready to move up.

I have similar issues with MMA: they wan't the violence without the mental and spiritual growth. There's always some tendancy to make Martial Arts a sport, but the MMA doesn't even try to be anything else. They don't even have the discipline to learn a propper art, so they borrow bits from here, bits from there, and bits from over there, without bothering to learn the meaning. (OK, maybe not all MMA are like that, but the ones that get the attention certainly seem to be.)

I haven't been in a fight since I started training as an adult (just don't put me anywhere near Vegas. No, really...).

Let’s get the conversation back on topic, folks.

Yeah as a lover of DnD style gaming and arms, armor and combat being a major part of it, I was really hoping to have more discussion about combat styles, weaponry, armor and how it relates based on seeing it in action for real. Even if the combat on the show has taken steps for safety, I think it still gives an interesting perspective on what combat is like.

One thing I was surprised by was how often punches, kicks, grappling and weapon hafts were used to try and stun opponents or take them to the ground. Once these guys hit the ground they were really sitting ducks if they were in mortal combat because of how difficult it is to stand up with such heavy armor on. These are the things I found very interesting about the show and as I stated earlier, just how utterly useless some weapons we use in DnD actually are against that armor.




 

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